1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a water delivery system equipped with a showerhead and a hose pipe, particularly to a system for the differentiated delivery of treated and untreated water.
2. Description of the Related Art
As known, in correspondence with sinks, washing basins and other sanitary appliances, showerheads of diverse shapes and operation modes are used to deliver water.
In particular, in the case of a water main not being to the user's taste and/or within potable limits (because too calcareous, or microbiologically impure, or otherwise), there exists the need to supply water treated by suitable filtering devices. To that purpose various solutions have been devised.
An effective solution incorporates a suitable centralized system, for example one equipped with activated charcoal filters, deflecting water from the main system, to allow a user to draw drinking water whenever required. This system is normally installed in an inconspicuous location of the house (for example in a utility room, or externally, or even enclosed in a cupboard) and from said system departs a supply pipe, ending at an easily accessible location, for example near a sink, with a self-contained outlet in addition to the taps and showerhead belonging to the main system. However, this solution requires an additional output assembly (taps, plus showerhead or spout) as well as the standard fittings of the untreated water system, which entails not only purchasing and installation expenses, but also aesthetic and space disadvantages.
Alternatively, it is possible to connect the centralized water treatment device directly to the main delivery system: this solution, however, is ineffective, because it implies a massive use of treated water also for all those purposes which do not require it (water for washing, for cooking, and so on), and hence it needlessly overloads the water treatment system, with unavoidable extra costs (due to frequent filter replacement, maintenance works, working inspections, etc.).
A different approach, which is advantageous for the localized use of treated water, integrates the treatment device at the output location, namely in the taps themselves or in the end portion of the outlet pipe.
Examples of filtering devices applied to the output location are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,362, U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,464, U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,569, U.S. Pat. No. 4,863,103, U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,768, U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,796, U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,046, U.S. Pat. No. 3,853,761, and U.S. Pat. No. 816,517.
In all these cases, however, the water delivered by the tap passes entirely through the filtering system and therefore, in order not to prematurely impair filter effectiveness, such devices must be mounted on water system outputs which are only used to deliver drinking water.
This last problem is instead absent in the solutions disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 738,486 and U.S. Pat. No. 712,868, since they envisage mounting the filtering device on a suitable side branch of the end pipe of the system. However, these last solutions are bulky, impractical to carry out on standard systems and aesthetically unsatisfactory.
Along the same lines as this local treatment approach, an aesthetically pleasant and globally acceptable solution is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,033, U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,229, U.S. Pat. No. 5,858,215 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,093,313 belonging to Moen Inc., on the basis of which the main claim preamble is construed.
In this case the filtering device is housed in the body of a water-supplying showerhead featuring two alternatively selectable delivery holes. Water from the main flows in the usual way into the showerhead inlet and then follows two alternative paths, one towards the head of the showerhead and the other passing through the treating element (a filter cartridge), which paths feature two separate outlets at the two delivery holes, one for treated water and the other for untreated water. A control member to alternatively intercept one of the two delivery holes is further provided, so that only the type of water according to the user's wishes at that time is drawn.
However, the problems deriving from this solution are evident. Firstly, the complexity and bulk of the showerhead to removably house the filtering device must be mentioned. Furthermore, since water treatment occurs locally in the showerhead, each water system showerhead intended to provide treated water is to be equipped with a filter cartridge, which must be subsequently replaced.
It is hence an object of the present invention to overcome all the prior art disadvantages by supplying a system featuring a simple and economical showerhead which can be advantageously installed in a traditional system, but which at the same time allows the user to exploit the peculiar advantages of a centralized water treatment system.
A further object of the invention is to supply a showerhead particularly suitable for use in a system of the kind illustrated above.
Finally, a further object is to supply a hose pipe linking the showerhead to the water system, which pipe may be mounted in a system such as the one described above.